The Eye of Providence, Aspen Trees and an Inkblot Test

 

 

Sometimes, street photography goes beyond the capture of people and their behavior. There was a gathering on the town center and I took my camera hoping for a special moment. But all seemed predictable and uneventful. Until I stopped by an Aspen tree upon which the sun had enhanced patterns that triggered my imagination. I had walked by that tree thousands of time with my dog, but this time my brain made delightful connections.

The photo on top of the page shows what I saw and clicked quickly.

 

What did I see? Somehow the memory of a UNICEF poster about a child immunization program came out of my past. I had seen that poster in Egypt during a public health initiative I was involved in. I was able to find that poster on the Internet:

 

And here is what made me recall that poster about which I had not thought for almost 35 years (and this flashback did worry me, I have to admit):

 

Pareidolia? Perhaps, but the full-body of a child arms up and hair locks bouncing on that tree trunk was uncanny!

 

But there was more – here is the familiar shape of another child's head, next on that tree (see the wide, happy smile?):

 

At this point my neurons were firing in all directions, and putting those two scratches together, like a Rorschach Inkblot test, reminded me of a Polish stamp that was all joy and innocence:

… Interestingly, Aspen trees are best known for their “eyes” which was atop of the two “inkblots” I first noticed.  The Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) is a most photogenic tree especially when a forest of Aspen trees are found. They seem to be looking at you with those eyes, the contours of which are most contrasty in the dusty silver bark of the trees. It is irresistible for a photographer not to take photos of these forests.

I find the origin of the Aspen eyes quite extraordinary. Indeed, one will find those eyes most abundant on Aspen that grow in a tree since the lower branches end up dying from the lack of direct sun being shaded by other Aspen. So, instead of hanging on to dead branches, the Aspen "self-prune" themselves by dropping these branches down. And it is the wound of the fallen branch that becomes the famous eye on the bark of the tree 

Thinking about the eye as a "wound" resulting from dead branches not receiving enough sunlight, I cannot resist thinking about Rumi's saying albeit more philosophical in nature:

                           The wound is the place where the light gets in

Yet, those eyes have inspired more sociological comparisons. For example artists have captured Aspen eyes resembling the Eye of Providence, which is symbolic of God’s eye in a protective way. The Providence eye is found in Masonic/Free Mason symbolism, on the U.S one dollar bill, the Estonian 50 Krooni note, the old Ukrainian hryvnia note, and several countries’ Coat of Arms including Belarus and Poland.

More, there is the Ancient Egyptian Eye of Horus a symbol of protection and health belonging to the sky god of Ancient Egypt depicted as a falcon. His right eye was associated with the Sun god Ra worshiped by Egyptians as representing enlightment.

Ancient Egyptians were extremely knowledgeable about human anatomy, and they had identified the shape of the Eye of Horus (or the Eye of Ra) around the pineal gland, a pine cone shaped miniscule located behind our eyes, attached to the Third ventricle in the middle of the brain. Sometimes known as the Spiritual Third Eye, the pineal gland is activated by light and Descartes called it The Seat of the Soul. The function of the pineal gland remained a mystery for most of human history, hence symbolism surrounded it. Most common symbolism of that gland was that it served as our inner vision, perhaps to look into our own souls.

 

.. What started as a hope to capture a human moment via street photography became a journey into matters of providence and soul searching.

All because of an Aspen tree next to the downtown sidewalk of a small cowboy town in Arizona on a sunny morning. Perhaps the desert sun activated my pineal gland in ways both delightful and surprising.

 

PS/ On my way back I passed by that tree again but the sun was higher in the sky and the shades had vanished.

 

 

April 24, 2022

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2022

Portrait or Portraiture – The Role of the Artist along that Continuum

 

 

I have taken portraits using miles and miles of film in the past 45 years. In many instances, persons who could not afford the portrait taken in a studio, sat still as I continuously talked to them hoping to get an unforced smile or a relaxed demeanor.

My street photography was all about people who did not sit down for a portrait. They moved, they ran, or they were obstructed by others in a crowd. As such I thought of such work as portraiture, where I was looking into a resemblance, a representation of human behavior and attitude through that one or surrounding few people. I was not aiming at an exact capture of that person’s appearance. In other word, I was not taking a portrait.

Yet, over time that distinction became blurred, and even unnecessary. Perhaps Oscar Wilde said it best in The Picture of Dorian Grey:

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself."

I think this reasoning applies to all media of capturing human anatomy and behavior, and not only to painting.

To illustrate, I looked through my scanned photos.

A.    Backstage of a circus, Baltimore, Maryland. This is the photo at the top of the page. I have not recorded the date when I took this photo – I would guess around 35 years ago. The show ended and we were passing by the large tent when I saw these two performers and the while pony. A short while ago these performers were all smile and gave the impression they were the happiest people on earth. Now, the show had ended. And I wanted to capture that moment. Is it a portrait or portraiture? Is it like the clown crying under his happy-painted face? Which face represents the true clown?

The negative has deteriorated over the years perhaps giving the photograph a more foggy distinction between a portrait and portraiture.

 

B.  At a concert, Washington D.C. I was using a 1954 Kiev rangefinder camera that afternoon in 2005. It was the way she had crossed her arms that “spoke” to me. I do not know if she was sad or just pensive. I consider it portraiture of melancholic moment.

 

C.     Nazaré, Portugal. A fisherman’s wife was selling sardines on the beach. Her dress and head cover attracted me first. But it was her almost angry demeanor that I wanted to capture. As such, it is portraiture for it portrays a rather typical scene of a fisherman’s wife selling sardines.

However, if I crop the photo shoulder high to show only her face, it becomes more personal, more of whom she was at that moment. Perhaps that continuum between portraiture and portrait is what I find most attractive when framing a shot. Often, I do see that transition before I press on the shutter.

 

  D.  Seoul, Korea. I was waiting for my flight out when I saw two flight attendants on the rolling walkway approaching a sleeping passenger. The background light made it almost for a contre jour shot, but my Pentax 100 captured enough detail for a pleasant softness. I had to burn and dodge a few times in my darkroom to bring out the sleeping woman's figure. 

For me, this is a portraiture of a common "airport moment". Yet, the chiseled profile of the flight attendant and her posture make it undeniably Korean.

This photo has been published in a book.

      E. Prescott, Arizona. A powwow, when American Indian culture is celebrated through dancing and singing. It is also a gathering of various indigenous nations to honor their ancestors and the traditions they inherited from them. I used a Yashica 124 medium format camera sitting about 50 yards away from the dancers. Hence I was able to enlarge a small area of the negative with minimal loss of definition. Even though the shot was overexposed, the final print fulfills the purpose of the shot which was to capture the atmosphere of the dance. Hence it is portraiture of the celebration.

 

      F. Prescott, Arizona. I decided to include this photo and to discuss it last as I think it brings up an interesting question, namely: can there be a distinction between portraiture and portraits if the photos were of animals?

 It may seem like a frivolous question, but many photographers would agree that sometimes wild animals do stop and look at the photographer. Would they be considered “sitters” for a portrait?

 

I took this with a 1961 telephoto lens, the venerable 180 mm Nikkor –Q F2.8, so I was about 30 yards away from mama deer and her “two girls”. They were about to run but mama decided to take one more look at me, and the young ones did the same for a split second. The angle of composure was perfect for that single frame shot I got before they went on their merry way.

I do not know if this is a portrait of deer curious about intruders, or portraiture of wild life. No matter, it is a photo that hangs on my wall.

 

Back to Oscar Wilde -- have I revealed myself through these portraits and portraiture? Did I see that melancholic posture of the woman sitting on the floor because I was melancholic too? Or did the angry look of the fisherman’s wife is something I like to capture in my photography and painting?

The only way to an answer would be to go out and take more photos hoping an explanatory pattern would reveal itself. Till then, I would not consider portraits and portraiture as categorically distinct results of capturing a look or a body language, but interpretations along a continuum.

 

January 9, 2022

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2022

Christmas Morning in a Cowboy Town

 

My early morning walk with my dog in Prescott, Arizona was all calm and gray. Snow had just started and the streets were empty. The fog added the natural blurring of the background and the touch of snow felt hopeful and clean.

In that space, I forgot about the pandemic and what the new year would bring.  I celebrated the moment.

December 29, 2021

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021

Moments from Around the Seine, Paris and the Danube, Vienna

 

 

Sometimes living in the high desert of Arizona makes me miss large bodies of water. And, as a street photographer, over the years two rivers in Europe have provided me with ample opportunity to capture moments that have special meaning because of the historical and contemporary meaning the Seine and the Danube have in Western Europe.

So, on a day when all is dry around me, I looked for a few photos from France and Vienna.

 

Paris

The photo atop this page was a challenge of film photography. I was using 100 ASA film and the sun had set almost an hour ago. The lens on my Yashica 124 TLR camera has a maximum of 3.5 which is not suited for photography in the dark! But the couple embracing on the public bench and the Tour Eiffel in the back made me try a slow shutter speed of 1/8^th second, handheld!

It took a number of attempts to print it in my darkroom, and then when digitally scanning it but gives me a secret view of the crépuscule (twilight) near the Seine.

This next photo, one of my favorites, I took at around sunset with a Mamiya 645 medium format camera. There was enough light for the superb Mamiya Sekor 90mm lens opened wide to 1.9. The texture and the tonal range came out beautifully using an Ilford Delta 100 film.

With cropping, The Ilford Pan 50 film gave me a delightful "view" of the wall:

It is all Paris in this photo, made for B&W photography!

 

Another published favorite is that of two young women on the wall next to the Seine. The Beret and the pigeon (which just flew into the frame…) make this photo immediately recognizable to represent a Parisian moment.

Of course I had to choose a photo taken from a Bateau Mouche or cruise boat to travel the Seine and see Paris from that angle. There was plenty of sunshine that day for my 1969 Nikon F and I took this shot with minimal lens focusing preparation.

Only à Paris…

 

 

Vienna

On this trip I wanted to capture the street artistic character of the long walkways on both sides of the Danube. 

While the Blue Danube is the most popular waltz by Johann Strauss II, I feel comfortable saying that the Danube has never been blue in modern times. I have walked the promenade on the shore of the Danube in Vienna many times in the past 50 years, and have never seen that river blue. And the walls around that walkway are not pristine in shape or colour.  And that for me is a character I cherish as a photographer.

So, on this trip I looked for that reality of shape, colour and texture that represents the Danube for me.

This photo is about wall art and street sculpture on the west promenade (the Danube runs at the right of this photo). The sculpted dead tree is a humanoid presence and the paintings on the walls will exist till they are cleaned and replaced by new phantasmagorical paintings.  So, what I captured at that moment does not exist anymore. It is history. Although the paintings are often in vivid spray paint colours, I think the general mood of the walk is best represented in shades of gray.

This second photo is my favorite from that trip as it is a true street photography. Steel, water, sharp edges, an old bridge and a pensive man as if admiring his reflection in the Danube. Or his sorrows. And then, a classically dressed woman showing timeless style amid a historic setting. Finally, in the upper quadrant a man leaving the scene. For me, this is a photo of cosmopolitan life but without crowds rushing along. It is also all texture and Fujifilm Neopan Across film did capture the autumnal early morning on the shores of the Danube.

Finally, I shot from the west promenade capturing the recent times of massive immigration throughout Europe. It is a socio-political statement next to the flowing river. It represents the times and issues that old river has seen more than once, when it was once blue and now that it runs in more subdued colours.

 

November 19, 2021

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021

 

Color is Descriptive. Black and White is Interpretative (Eliott Erwitt)

 

The debate about why B&W photos affect the viewers so differently than color ones has been going on since Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell proposed that using red, blue and green filters (RGB in today’s digital world parlance)and superimposing the three images would result in a colour photograph. This was put to test in 1861 by Thomas Sutton, who later invented the single lens reflex camera, by producing a colour photograph of a tartan ribbon using Maxwell’s principle of the three-color analysis and synthesis.

Of course the red, green and blue filters did not produce a colour photograph as we Eastman Kodak’s Kodachrome reversal film did in 1935, but paved the way to the era of photography most of the world takes now for granted. But E. Kodak did not create the colour film—indeed, two French brothers, Auguste and Louis Lumière marketed a colour process in 1907 which was adopted by the silent movie industry as well and called Technicolor. The first Technicolor movie, albeit silent, was “The Gulf Between” which premiered on September 13, 1917.

So the “Wizard of Oz” (1939) was not the first film in color but sure helped Kodachrome become a household name in the 1950s and slowly make B&W photography a niche art form rather than mainstream medium for capturing the moment.

So, where do we stand now?

After digital photography seemed to have put the last nail in the coffin of film, B&W photography is still alive and being resurrected.  Major film and camera manufacturers are producing film again, as well as cameras that have the classic looks and perhaps some of the features.

Why?

Because what B&W photography based on B&W film can produce digital technology has not achieved. At least for artists who continuously explore the suggestive and interpretative magic of shades, tonal ranges and the fluidity of the interaction of these two characteristics that give a movement to the viewer rather than a “still imprint.”

Like many photographer and art critics, I have written about this subject more than once. I still use film, classical mechanical cameras and cherish my work in the darkroom. That is why my favorite most succinct contrasting of colour vs B&W photography is by Eliott Erwitt, the Canadian-American street photographer who has taken most iconic (in my opinion) B&W portraits of famous people, among these being Marilyn Monroe. In his portraits of her, Monroe is the girl next door not the sex symbol we fantasized about from the movies.

                    Color is Descriptive. Black and White is Interpretative 

Of course, descriptive does not mean colour photographs cannot or do not tell a story. They do. But I think that photographers using are more didactic though their emphasis using colour. They tell you what they had in mind. What your eyes should focus on. So, in some way colour has build-in interpretation – that of the photographer.

Black and White being interpretative means to me that there is enough fluidity through the shades of gray to allow the viewer interpret what he/she is seeing based on the life experience and personality of that very viewer.

And perhaps that is why B&W photographs, especially if printed in a square format have that je ne sais quoi many appreciate. Because it makes them part of the interpretation, not just the recipient of the photographer’s work.

To illustrate, I am including two photos. The first, shown at the top of the essay I took in Morocco. I did some burning and clearly dodging to create that moment of social gathering in a street traditional Moroccan character. The man on the right, with his wife next to him gets the attention—they are happy to see me with my Minolta Autocord medium format TLR camera. Yet, the space behind them is obscure and one wonders if it is their small shop or the side of a house. But there is a lock on the steel gate that closes that area. Is that their shop still closed or a garage? Are they selling peppers in the street or mixing business with pleasure socializing with the neighbors?

Perhaps one such neighbor is the woman standing in front of them. We do not see her face, and many do not immediately notice the child she is carrying on her back. Is she his mother or grandmother? Is she buying peppers or just chatting? So we do not know what she looks like; nor do we have a good sense of the environment.  I purposefully included the bicycle as the only “artifact of visual comfort”. Each viewer is left to their interpretation.

The contrast, the shades and shadows in this photo, I believe are best expressed through B&W film.

This next photo is from Baltimore, Maryland. Again the woman’s face is hidden, but the man’s shows a calm moment of respite. We do not see her legs and feet, but we know she is bare foot because of her walking shoes at her side. We assume the man is napping close to her bare feet.  Is he napping though? Or did they disagree during their conversation and opted for personal space? Was his mother-in-law with them on this outing and decided to move away after the argument? We see a female’s feet walking away from her.  But her body language is similar to her daughter’s we see part of at her right. But the proportins seem misleading -- her daughter looks much farther than the plane she and her husband (?) are on. And that gives a delightful depth of field to the photo. Almost three-dimensional.

There is nothing didactic in this photo—I have heard as many interpretations as the number of viewers who have seen this at an exhibit. 

… Perhaps the best description about the popularity of colour film is not in the photos but what it represented in the 1970s. The lyrics of a Paul Simon song entitled “Kodachrome” (1973) puts it this way:

Kodachrome
They give us those nice bright colors
Give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera
I love to take a photograph
So mama, don't take my Kodachrome away

PS/ I find it intriguing that in the Middle Ages there was the “Camera Obscura” (Darkened Room) consisting of a room with a small hole in one wall (today we would call it a "pinhole camera...) It was first used to watch sun eclipses as the image of the sun projected, upside down, on the bleached wall facing the hole and shielded the viewer eyes from the rays.  Then in the 1600s this set up was used for drawing as the upside down projections were traced on a sheet of paper and then coloured in.

Then came the Lumière brothers in the early 1900s with their colour processing of photographs. From Obscura to Lumière (Light in French) the definition of Black and White was created for photography . But the origins of that word are associated with the Camera Obscura as “photography” is derived from the Greek language where photos mean “light” and graphein means “to draw.” Photography, as a word was cornered in the 1830s. 

November 5, 2021

©Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021

Thaipusam, a Tamil Hindu Celebration in Singapore

 

 A week ago I posted an essay on my literary site about anthropomorphism. I reported on a discussion I had in 1998 in Hyderabad, India with a colleague when we were in the Birla Mandir Hindu temple about how Hindu gods and goddesses have human features.  Here is the link:

 https://vahezen.blogspot.com/2021/10/anthropomorphism-from-deity-to-desert.html

I also mentioned that I had visited Calcutta in the late 1970s, as well as Mumbai during the same trip to Hyderabad. So I received a few emails asking if I have photos from these trips.

Well, I have posted photos from Mumbai in the following two posts: https://liveingray.blogspot.com/2013/05/mumbai.html and https://liveingray.blogspot.com/2013/05/mumbai.html but I am unable to find photos from Calcutta. In the past 40 years I have vagabonded the planet and often have left paper documents and photos behind.

But in my search for old photos, I came across a few about Thaipusam that I have taken in the 2000s (I have signed the prints but did not put down the date…)

… Thaipusam is a festival celebrated in countries where the Tamil Hindu communities are predominant, such as India, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Canada among others. It takes place on the full moon of the Tamil month of Thai, usually January or February of each year. Devotees walk to the local Tamil temple carrying a pot of milk but also they pierce their skin, cheeks and tongue with thin but long skewers called vel. This ritual of flesh mortification is part of their soul’s purification before they enter the temple.

The march to the temple is though a dance called kavadi dance, where a large semicircular canopy, often quite decorated is carried by the devotees showing their pierced body. From a distance it may look like they are holding a large, ornate umbrella but a closer look shows the ritual of soul purification.

… On that January, a colleague who has seen many a Thaipusam celebration in Singapore picked me up from the hotel to see the procession.

“Too bad you take only B&W photos” he said, “look how delightful the colours are.”

Indeed, not only were the kavadi ornate in gold, yellow, white, and red but also the women attending the ceremony were in traditional Indian silk dresses.  It was a wonderful scene.

So I took a few photos with my Nikon F2.  The photo at the outset shows the canopy and the one below a close up of the back of another devotee displaying the ritual body piercing.

… I was delighted to find these old photographs. Then I checked and there are many wonderful colour photos of Thaipusam on the internet covering celebrations from many countries.

My black and white photography is photojournalistic as always – trying to tell a story rather than dazzle the viewer’s eyes.

October 24, 2021

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021

Minolta Autocord TLR for Street Photography

 

Rolleiflex Medium Format cameras have been in extensively used in photojournalism since the 1940s. They are small, relatively light and can be preset (if needed) to an approximate focusing distance for quick snapping.  Most importantly, since the TLRs have a waist level focusing screen, one can identify the subject without the latter knowing that you are taking a photo. That makes for candid shots.

I have used TLR cameras in street photography since the 1980s. While I have a number of them, my three favorites are a 1948 Rolleiflex, a 1966 Minolta Autocord III, and the Yashica 124 also from the 1960s. For studio portraiture, I use a Mamiya Professional with bellows and a Minolta Autocord CDS which has a light meter but is too bulky for hanging around my neck.

Here are the Rolleiflex, the Autocord CDS and the Autocord III. Note the modifications I have made for quick photo taking -- I have added longer plungers to the shutter button, replaced the hood on the CDS with a Yashica hood and internal fresnel for a brighter viewfinder, and made a hood on the III using three metal rings from old filters:

 

While all three of them have delightful lenses, the Autocords have an elliptic sliding focusing system with a knob under the lens compared to the left hand rotating knob on the Rolleiflex and Yashica. With some practice, one can hold the camera in the right hand, slide the focusing knob right or left with the middle finger for the perfect focus, then press the shutter with the index finger.

The concept was not new. In the 1950s and 60s, Meopta, a Czechoslovakian company, made a TLR called Flexaret that was widely used during the Soviet days. It was the first TLR to use the sliding focusing mechanism. But the aluminum bodied camera did not have professional features nor the endurance for heavy use.

Here is a close-up to the Autocord sliding focusing design:

So, I do not need my left hand to go through these steps and take a photo. Unless I am holding the leach of my dog with my left arm!

And that is what I did last weekend. I knew the downtown was getting ready for an open air art show and my dog needs his daily early morning walk. So, there I went trying to control a 106 pound Akita who pulls like a pony on the first day of spring, and hoping to snap a few photos with my Autocord III.

It was soon after sunrise when we got there. The tall trees around the town square filtered the early rays making me choose an aperture of 3.5 and a shutter speed of 1/60^th second.

The photo at the top of this page is what a medium format film delivers – the wide opened lens blurred the background smoothly and the subject, a cowboy taking a break is in focus surrounded by a tonal range progression that fits his pensive mood. I did crop the photo, especially the top of the chair on the left to give contournal contrast to the smooth lines. Also the top of the trees were amorphous and distracting.

A few minutes later, I notice a man helping a Western dressed woman unfold a blanket. With my dog pulling enough to un-steady my camera holding, I tried to capture that movement. The man is at the front and left of the woman, his legs showing, but most of his body and face are covered under that blanket. Interestingly, the folds of the blanket give a resemblance of a funny face almost where the head of the man is supposed to be. Here is the ghostly illusion I noticed when I printed the photo:

Here is the full photo, this time with an almost Sonnar like background swirl!

I like the movement in this photo, as the woman and the water fountain in the background give the contrast of immobility.

As with all mechanical cameras, taking a photo makes the photographer one with the tool. Now add to that a massive Akita on his first morning walk not eager to stop walking, and a TLR that had to be held in one hand to focus, click the shutter and rewind the film!

But when I look at the photos, I know why I still love the challenge of TLR photography and the joy of having my fourth dog in the past 40 years dragging me in the streets!

 

October 9, 2021

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2021